In this article we take an embodied and interactional perspective on how ethical dilemmas are being managed in situated interaction. Accordingly, we aim at linking ethical principles to real-life clinical practices in order to show how ethical dilemmas are less about abstract decision-making, and more about reasoning constrained by inter-bodily dynamics, affect and adaptive behaviour in situated interaction. We present two real-life cases of ethical dilemma management in a psychotherapeutic setting. We use the innovative method, Cognitive Event Analysis, to investigate the interaction in which the dilemmas emerge. The analytical findings, we claim, pave the way for a more embodied code of ethics, which, in turn, has consequences for the theoretical assumptions that inform the models and guidelines for action in practice.